The Sheriff (Historical Romance) Read Online Free

pushed up the brim of his hat, releasing a shock of coal black hair onto his high forehead. The move afforded Kate a good look at his face.
    She quickly sucked in her breath.
    Fortune’s fearless sheriff was a ruggedly handsome man with smooth olive skin, soaring cheekbones, a straight nose, sensual lips and eyes of a color she couldn’t quite determine, shaded as they were by long, curling lashes.
    “That’s him, sure enough,” said the physician. “Marshal Travis McCloud. He’s here to take possession of that foul-mouthed prisoner that came up on the steamer with us.”
    Kate continued staring at the imposing sheriff. There was a strong masculinity about him in the set of his lean, hard body, the way his broad shoulders moved. He came forward to meet his skinny, sandy-haireddeputy and the man in irons as they stepped down from the gangplank.
    “I’ll take over, Jiggs,” Kate heard the marshal say in a surprisingly soft voice with a slight Southern accent.
    “He…the sheriff looks…he looks mean,” Kate murmured over her shoulder, unable to take her eyes off the most compelling man she had ever seen.
    “I doubt he’ll be mean to you, Miss VanNam,” the doctor said, adding with a chuckle, “that is, unless you misbehave. Then he’ll have to throw you in jail.”
    “I’ll be very careful,” she answered with a laugh, but felt a shiver skip her up spine at the prospect.
    “Here, let me help you with that,” said Dr. Ledet when Kate lifted her heavy valise and started down the gangway.
    “No, thank you.” She turned down his kind offer of assistance. “I can manage. It’s been a genuine pleasure visiting with you, Doctor.”
    The man beamed. “I look forward to seeing you again soon, although not as a patient. You take care of yourself and stay well. You need anything, Kate, you let me know. My office is two doors down from the Eldorado Hotel. You can’t miss it.”
    Kate smiled, nodded and left him. She carried her belongings from the riverfront to Main Street. The hotel that the doctor had mentioned was the first one she saw. Kate entered the Eldorado, checked into a third-floor room, glanced around and immediately focused on the big double bed.
    She smiled and hurried to examine the mattress and bedding, turning back the covers and admiring the clean white sheets. She sighed with pleasure. The two things she wanted most in life were hers to be had in this hotel room.
    A bath and a bed.
    Soon Kate, fresh from her hot, relaxing bath, climbed into that soft, clean bed and smiled.
    She fell asleep at sundown.

Four
    A t sundown Fortune came alive.
    Thirsty miners hit the town’s many saloons the minute they laid down their picks and shovels. Tired and dirty, the men swarmed into the bars, eager for their first bracing shot of rotgut whiskey.
    In Fortune’s most favored saloon, the Golden Nugget, the long polished bar, faro wheels and poker tables filled up as the sun slipped fully behind the western mountain peaks. Loud piano music resounded up and down the busy streets as the shrill feminine laughter of painted women in gaudy gowns mingled with the voices of lusty miners.
    The man who single-handedly saw to it that trouble stayed away from his town was presently at the Golden Nugget.
    But he wasn’t downstairs.
    Sheriff Travis McCloud was enjoying a hot bath in a plush upstairs suite at the soft hands of Miss Valentina Knight, the Golden Nugget’s beautiful songbird owner and Travis’s favorite female companion.
    With his clothes neatly draped across a blue brocade-covered chaise longue, and his black hat hooked on the newel of a high-backed rocker, the six-foot-three-inch Travis sat in a suds-filled tub with his knees and torso sticking up out of the steaming water.
    Feeling relaxed and enjoying himself, he smoked a fine Cuban cigar and drank Kentucky bourbon from a lead crystal glass, while the prettiest woman in Fortune gently scrubbed his broad shoulders with a soft-bristled, long-handled